THE runners and riders of the Grand National may be safely home, but those vying for success in the General Election are still at the first corner of their race.

Prime Minister Tony Blair brought the phoney war to an end when he travelled to Buckingham Palace on Monday to ask the Queen to agree to a General Election. He announced that the country will go to the polls on Thursday, May 5, the date widely predicted.

Mr Blair launched his campaign in Downing Street, while Michael Howard launched the Conservatives' campaign, offering an alternative to the 'smirking politics of Mr Blair or the woolly thinking of Liberal Democrats'.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy launched his campaign on the same day it was revealed Labour parliamentary candidate Stephen Wilkinson defected to his party, citing disillusionment with Tony Blair's 'increasingly authoritarian' party as to why. Nominations haven't closed but candidates in our four constituencies, MPs George Osborne, Mike Hall, Stephen O'Brien and Ann Winterton, will defend their seats.